Our missionary son

We received a letter this week from Doug with these pictures. He is in the last quarter of his mission and is lovin' every minute of it! The woman to the right of him was just baptized this month.

This years group of exchange students

This is a fun group of kids we have this year. From left to right: Artur from Holland, Jonas from Denmark, Florine from Holland, Julias from Germany, Johanna from Sweden and Julia from Brazil. Florine and Julia live with us and the others are placed in homes here in Panaca or Pioche.

Our two girls still trying to catch up from the long flights and time changes. They did not take any time making themselves right at home! They are keepers!

Artur, Julia and Florine register for school

See what a little water and sunshine can do!

Pete is making fresh salsa almost three times a week for somebody to eat. The peppers, onions, tomatoes all did well. We also have more cucumbers and watermelon than we know what to do with. Never underestimate what you can grow from a small box garden!

The Petunia's have blossomed!

The little groups of petunia's that Amber and Bailey planted in June have spread more than we could have imagined. They look so pretty now and have almost filled in the entire area along the sidewalk.

The front yard is finally done!

While I was attending girls camp June 16-20th Pete gathered up some help and laid the sod in our front yard. It is looking good but needs a little more tender loving care. There are flowers along both sides of the walk but you can't see them very well in this picture. Amber and her kids planted them for us. As they spread out it will be very pretty! The black post that you see on the left side of the sidewalk is an old horse tie up post that Pete acquired.

Grandkid playhouse

We have added a picnic table to the side of the playhouse for the grandkids to eat on. We hope to add flower boxes under the windows one of these days. The lawn is greening up nicely.

Progress in the back yard!

Pete, along with the help of Daniel Stottler, has spent many hours working on the back yard. The garden boxes worked out great and the shed is for storing the 4-wheeler and lawn mowers.

We hope to side the shed like the house. We are happy with how things are turning out. The cement pad by the shed will be for a future dutch oven waist high pit. Like those at Cathedral Gorge. You won't have to bend over to cook! That will have to be a project for next year.

Friends for Life

Ase's last day in Panaca. We told her to show this picture to her friends back home and tell them that this is the house she lived in for 10 months! (Really, it is the grandkids play house)

Ase has made many new friends while living here. These are a few that came over to say good-bye again on Monday before we left for Vegas. Top- Topias, Kade Lee, Ase Bottom- Sabrina, Jenna Shumway, Veronica Garcia.

End of the year for Exchange Students

The exchange students from L to R. Wai Yan (Hong Kong), Andreas (Norway) Sabrina (Germany) Topias (Finland) Ase Berit (Norway)

Our exchange student, Ase Berit Fauske from Norway, has completed her Senior Year at LCHS! She got to walk with the class but none of the exchange students received a diploma because the school district does not offer them to exchange students. Pete made them all certificates of completion that looked very nice. We had a great group of students this year. We will miss them and hope that they always remember Lincoln County Nevada!

Gees mom, that's a lot of candles!

Happy 29th Birthday to Amber! And we could not fit 29 candles on the Strawberry Cheesecake pie so she got a break in having to blow 29 candkes out. But she did blow all 13 out with one huff!

Memorial Day Weekend with the family

We had Amber and her three kids plus Camille and Jonathan and their two kids here for Memorial Day weekend. The kids had a ball playing out back on our new lawn and having waterfights with their grandpa Pete. It was Ambers birthday today, Monday the 25th and she wanted strawberry cheesecake for her dessert. We managed to fill it with candles and sing to her. She had Brycen on top of the bar in his bumbo seat and he was talking to her about how hungry he thought he was. I just had to share the video with you here.

Amber will post pics of the other kids on her blog. I was in bed sleeping the whole morning after working a graveyard shift last night so I was not in on the outside fun with grandpa. The grandkids told me that they had more fun with grandpa than they could ever have with me and that is the truth. Pete is just another kid when it comes to water fights.

Awesome day for Bev and Ase Berit!

On Tuesday May 19th, Pete took Ase Berit (our exchange student) and I to Hurricane, Utah to Skydive! This has been a dream of mine for years and I thought that I would never see the day when I would actually go, but our exchange student, Ase Berit, wanted to skydive too and she is going back home to Norway in just three weeks so we told her that we would take her so Pete insisted that I went as well. He of course would not even consider the idea of jumping out of a plane. (Big chicken!) The web page http://www.skydivezion.com/ gives you an idea of what it is like, which is absolutely AWESOME! I was hoping to post my video which I paid to have made while I was falling but it won't download. (probably protected) Anyway, go to the site and watch their videos. Just put my face in there and you will see how excited I was to be free falling from the sky and then flying like a bird after the parachute deployed! He even let me pull the rip cord!

Needless to say, I thought that one time would be enough for me but now I am wanting to go again already. It costs a pretty penny though but was worth it. I am going to save up to go again next year with some of my kids. Yes.....I would let my kids do this too!

The man in the first picure is Dave the owner of skydive zion. He spends about a half hour teaching us what to do and then of course, he is tied to the back of us for the actual dive, called tandem diving. He made this dive lots of fun! If you decide to go skydiving, tell him Beverly Peterson sent you!

Dave recording the beginning of my experience

Gearing up and getting instructions for the dive

Ase coming in for a landing

We are seeing green!

After many hours of hard work, we now have green grass in our backyard. On Saturday May 16th Pete decided to buy sod to lay in the backyard. Our attempt at seeding failed and we wanted grass for the grandkids to play on this summer. We called our neighbors, Elisha and Ben Baker who came to help along with the missionaries and Chad Adamson. We had the yard looking really good in just a few hours. We now have the front yard to work on!

Our missionary son

The first picture is of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. They were found in a Florida swamp!

Next picture is of Elder Peterson with his last companion Elder Sorenson. Doug is now in a new area called Port Orange, Florida and has a new companion whose name I cannot remember. He says that he can see the beach from his apt. His year mark is June 25th and we hope that he can continue to work hard for another year in the heat and humidity!

Now for the yardwork!

We have enjoyed 8 months inside our new home but with the warmer weather, the time has come to work on the outside of the home. With the help of Daniel Stottler and his brother Josh, we now have an extended patio walkway and sidewalk down to the grandkids playhouse. The brick used is from the old LCHS gym that was torn down several years ago and we have been saving them for use in our yard. We did not know where we would use them ,but Pete began laying them a few months ago and Daniel and his brother finished the project about one month ago.

With several more days of work, we prepared a small section for planting grass and today we actually spread the seed! In about 3-4 weeks we should have some green grass growing in this area. We also added a few trees to this section and look forward to some shade in a few years!

On March 6th Beverly flew to Omaha, Nebraska to spend a week with Jenny, Andrew and the two boys, Tanner and Benson Bleak. The weather was fairly cold most days but that did not stop us from going to the Zoo two different days and having a great time seeing all the cool animals. We also took two days and drove to some of the church History sites within a few hours drive from Omaha. We saw Adam-ondi-Ahman, Independance, MO, Liberty Jail, and Far West. There is a special spirit in those places and you gain a new respect for the early saints who fought so hard to help establish the church upon the earth. While out there, I did find time to read a book that Jenny had borrowed called, "The Refiners Fire". It made me want to be a better member and made me realize that I am not doing all that I could to build up the kingdom here upon the earth. I live way below my potential; that is for sure.

I also spent a few days just playing with the boys and watching them laugh at each other. They both have such a sweet spirit and play together well.